Saturday, April 11, 2015

Hawaii!!!! Day Three

Today was the "music day" of the trip for the students and we did a bit of traveling for it all. Early this morning we went to The Star of the Sea Elementary School, which was one of the main points of the trip. That school is working on a new music program that should start up next school year, so they were happy to have our students give a mini concert to help get their students excited and more interested in picking up an instrument.
Our kids did great! The elementary kids seemed to have fun too, and the school generously provided lunch for all of us. We got to eat in their cafeteria and it was a fun time.
Here are the kids at the school:

When we were finished there, we took our fancy bus through mountains and a tunnel and along the beach to get to BYU Hawaii so the students could participate in clinics. I wanted to see if I knew anybody who might be attending BYUH but I couldn't get on Facebook to send the word out. If you're reading this, and you are at BYUH, sorry I missed you!
While the students were in their music clinic at BYUH, I decided to make a trip to see the LDS temple nearby. I set out with a general idea of the direction to go, but I quickly lost confidence and asked two girls for directions. They were super cool and helpful! After I repeated back the directions to make sure I knew the way, one girl was like, "want us to just drive you there?" and I said sure. The temple was on the way to their dorms, so it was really nice of them. They were super nice and I didn't feel like they were going to kidnap me, so we all chatted and made acquaintances on the way to their car. They were from Payson and Hurricane, Utah, and named Alexis and Josie. It was great how friendly they were! If everyone were as awesome as those girls, then the world would be a better fun happy place.
They drove me the little ways to the temple and I thanked them sincerely. I'll probably never see then again and they'll probably never see this blog, but they made my day!
At the temple, I wandered around and took some pictures. The grounds were nearly deserted. As I was walking, another girl caught up to me and we chatted for a bit. Her name is Alli and she's a BYUH student. She was going to worship at the temple so we didn't have much time to chat, but she told me she ran the spotlights at the cultural center.

After a few more pictures and feeling the sun bake my neck, I stopped into the visitor center for a moment of shade. The missionaries were on me in seconds and we chatted for a bit. They convinced me to stay for a two minute move called "Because He Lives," which I hadn't seen before. It was a good little message and I admit that I got a little tight in the throat while watching it.
Afterward, I went back to campus, but stopped partway to reapply sunscreen to my neck -it was hot today! - and then made it back to the music building just in time to hear the students pound out the song they had just learned on the Tahitian drums. It was loud and really fun to listen to.

After that, we all walked over to the Polynesian Cultural Center, where we could look around and eat before going to the show. My friends, Jed and Fiona, and I went for a Tongan boat ride that was fun. We were the very last group that got to go. The center seemed pretty empty tonight, but I think it was just because most of it was closing down around 5:00 when we got there.

Fiona and I and some statues of heads.

Jed had a friend that used to live in our neighborhood back in Utah, who was now attending BYUH and working at the Cultural Center, so we stopped by to say hi. His name is Brennon, and we all made plans to meet up again before our trip ended. After that, we ate at a big buffet and I had fish that was so good!
The last part of our day was watching the show "Há: Breath of Life". It was a production that highlighted the dances and culture of the islands of Polynesia. The Tahitian part of the show was really fun, and the drums they used were the same ones that the students got to play with earlier! The fire dancers were my favorite part. The students seemed to really like it too.

This is the stage after the show with the cast posing for pictures. Sorry it's so washed out!

On the hour long trip back to Waikiki, I showed Fiona photos from my trip to London a few years back, which helped pass the time.
Today was busy busy, but really good. I made three new friends and accepted a ride from strangers and got to see the temple and the most green and beautiful scenery. I'm so tired.
Tomorrow I'm going smirking (Ha! My auto text thing put 'smirking' but was supposed to say 'snorkeling' - I'm not changing it) and hiking, so be sure to check back for pictures! See you soon!